Claudine Gay

Page semi-protected
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Claudine Gay
Gay in 2023
30th President of Harvard University
In office
July 1, 2023 – January 2, 2024
Preceded byLawrence Bacow
Succeeded byAlan Garber (interim)
Dean of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
In office
August 15, 2018 – June 30, 2023
Preceded byMichael Smith
Succeeded byEmma Dench (interim)
Personal details
Born1970 (age 53–54)
New York City, U.S.
SpouseChristopher Afendulis
Children1
RelativesRoxane Gay (cousin)
EducationPrinceton University
Stanford University (BA)
Harvard University (PhD)
Academic background
ThesisTaking Charge: Black Electoral Success and the Redefinition of American Policies (1997)
Doctoral advisorGary King[1]
Academic work
DisciplinePolitical science
InstitutionsStanford University (2000–2006)
Harvard University (2006–present)

Claudine Gay (born 1970)[2][3] is an American political scientist and academic administrator who was the 30th president of Harvard University, and is the Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government and of African and African-American Studies at Harvard.[4] Gay's research addresses American political behavior, including voter turnout and politics of race and identity.[5]

Gay became the first non-White person to serve as president of Harvard,[6] after serving previously as the Dean of Social Sciences, and the Dean of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

In December 2023, Gay and two other university presidents faced pressure from the public[7][8] and from a Congressional committee to resign, over responses to antisemitism on their campuses.[9][10][11][12] Gay also faced accusations of plagiarism,[13][14] including a probe by the same committee.[15] The following month she resigned from the presidency.[16]

Early life and education

Gay grew up the child of Haitian immigrants who came to the United States and met in New York City as students. Her mother studied nursing and her father studied engineering.[17] Gay spent much of her childhood first in New York, and then in Saudi Arabia, where her father worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,[18] while her mother was a registered nurse.[18] She is a cousin of writer Roxane Gay[17] and her family in Haiti owns and runs the largest concrete plant in that country.[19]

Gay attended Phillips Exeter Academy, a private boarding school in Exeter, New Hampshire,[20] graduating in 1988.[21] She attended Princeton University for one year[21][22][23] before transferring to Stanford University, where she studied economics, graduating in 1992. She received the Anna Laura Myers Prize for the best undergraduate thesis in economics.[18] Gay earned her Ph.D. in 1998 from Harvard, where she won the university's Toppan Prize for the best dissertation in political science.[24]

Academic career

After graduating, Gay was an assistant professor, and later tenured associate professor, in Stanford's Department of Political Science from 2000 to 2006. In the 2003–2004 academic year, she was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.[18]

Gay's research addresses American political behavior, including voter turnout, housing policy, and the politics of race and identity.[5] She was recruited by Harvard to be a professor of government in 2006, and was appointed professor of African American studies in 2007.[4]

Administrative positions

In 2015, Gay was named the Dean of Social Sciences at the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government and of African and African-American Studies. In 2018, she was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.[5]

As Dean of FAS, which oversees graduate and undergraduate studies, she outlined four priorities: increasing diversity among faculty, increasing interdisciplinary studies among students, encouraging collaboration among professors, and fostering faculty involvement in the university's community.[25]

In 2019, Harvard Law School professor and Winthrop House faculty dean Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. faced student protests after joining the legal defense team for Harvey Weinstein, who was on trial for rape.[26] Gay called Sullivan's response to the controversy "insufficient," citing his "special responsibility" as house dean for the well-being of Winthrop residents.[27] Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana decided not to renew Sullivan's contract as house dean the following term.[28][29] This decision was criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union.[30]

In 2020, the university faced educational and financial disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. For fiscal year 2020, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences reported losses of $15.8 million.[31] In 2021, Gay announced that the cost of the FAS's core academic commitments were greater than its revenues and began processes to reduce expenses.[25] In 2021, the FAS reported a surplus of $51 million, an increase from the projected deficit of $112 million.[32]

In addition to her time at Harvard and Stanford, Gay served as a vice president of the Midwest Political Science Association from 2014 to 2017[33] and a trustee of Phillips Exeter from 2017 to 2023.[20]

Harvard presidency

In June 2022, Harvard President Lawrence Bacow announced that he would resign from the post in one year. A search committee led by Penny Pritzker considered 600 nominees and selected Gay to succeed Bacow. On December 15, 2022, Harvard announced that Gay had been selected as the 30th president of Harvard University.[34][35] She took office on July 1, 2023, becoming the university's first Black president.[36][37]

On January 2, 2024, Gay announced she was resigning her position.[38] In an email to affiliates, Gay said, "It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president."[39][40] She further stated, "it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor – two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am—and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus."[40] In an op-ed published in The New York Times the following day, Gay said that she "made mistakes", but her invitation to testify before Congress about antisemitism was a "well-laid trap", and the campaign to oust her was "[a] skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society".[41][42]

Following Gay's resignation, Alan Garber, the provost of Harvard, was named interim president. Gay remained on the faculty at Harvard.[3][43]

Congressional hearing on antisemitism

After the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, Gay faced criticism, including from former Harvard President Lawrence Summers,[7][8] for failing to adequately condemn the attacks. In a December 2023 Congressional committee hearing, Gay and the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania were asked about institutional response to antisemitism on their campuses.[44] When asked if a hypothetical call for the genocide of Jewish people would qualify as a violation of Harvard's code of conduct, Gay responded, "It can be, depending on the context." She later clarified, "Antisemitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation — that is actionable conduct and we do take action."[45]

Gay's remarks were broadly criticized in the media.[46] In response, Gay apologized[47][48] and said that some people "have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students".[49][50] A letter signed by 70 Congressional Representatives called for all three presidents to resign.[51] Liz Magill had already been under pressure within the University of Pennsylvania, and resigned from the presidency the following week.

On December 11, more than 700 of Harvard's 2,452 faculty members signed a letter opposing calls for Gay to be removed as university president.[52] The executive committee of Harvard's Alumni Association stated it "unanimously and unequivocally" supported Gay's leadership, praising her "for protecting academic freedom and the right of all students to voice their opinions".[53] On December 12, the board of the Harvard Corporation said they "unanimously" supported Gay's leadership, adding: "President Gay has apologized for how she handled her congressional testimony and has committed to redoubling the University's fight against antisemitism."[54]

Plagiarism investigations

Soon after the December congressional hearing, Gay was accused of plagiarism by conservative activist Christopher Rufo and journalist Aaron Sibarium.[13][55][56] As summarized by The New York Times, the allegations concerned "using material from other sources without proper attribution in her dissertation and about half of the 11 journal articles listed on her résumé. The examples range from brief snippets of technical definitions to paragraphs summing up other scholars' research that are only lightly paraphrased, and in some cases lack any direct citation of the other scholars."[14]

Harvard had been contacted by the New York Post in October 2023 for comment on a planned story about 27 "possible examples of plagiarism", and called the Post's allegations "demonstrably false", threatening to sue the newspaper for libel.[57]

In response, Gay said she stood behind the integrity of her work and requested an outside review of it.[58][57] The Harvard Corporation reported that the review found "a few instances of inadequate citation" in her work, but "no violation of Harvard's standards for research misconduct."[58] An updated report the following week found two additional instances of "duplicative language without appropriate attribution" in her Ph.D. dissertation.[59][60] Gay requested corrections to add citations and quotation marks to her dissertation and two of her articles.[54][61] By January 1, 2024, there were about 40 recorded accusations of plagiarism against Gay.[62]

In response to the allegations, the Congressional committee that held the hearing on antisemitism said it would examine Gay's work, and asked the university to produce related communications and documentation.[63][15] The following month, Gay resigned from the university's presidency.[38]

Personal life

Gay is married to Christopher Afendulis, an information systems analyst at Stanford's Department of Health Research and Policy. They have a son.[64]

Selected publications

Scholia has an author profile for Claudine Gay.
  • 1998: "Doubly Bound: The Impact of Gender and Race on the Politics of Black Women", Political Psychology, co-authored with Katherine Tate
  • 2001: "The Effect of Black Congressional Representation on Political Participation", American Political Science Review
  • 2001: The Effect of Minority Districts and Minority Representation on Political Participation in California, Public Policy Institute of California
  • 2002: "Spirals of Trust? The Effect of Descriptive Representation on the Relationship Between Citizens and Their Government", American Journal of Political Science
  • 2004: "Putting Race in Context: Identifying the Environmental Determinants of Black Racial Attitudes", American Political Science Review
  • 2006: "Seeing Difference: The Effect of Economic Disparity on Black Attitudes Toward Latinos", American Journal of Political Science
  • 2007: "Legislating Without Constraints: The Effect of Minority Districting on Legislators' Responsiveness to Constituency Preferences", The Journal of Politics
  • 2012: "Moving to Opportunity: The Political Effects of a Housing Mobility Experiment", Urban Affairs Review
  • 2013: Outsiders No More? Models of Immigrant Political Incorporation, Oxford University Press, co-editor with Jacqueline Chattopadhyay, Jennifer Hochschild, and Michael Jones-Correa
  • 2014: "Knowledge Matters: Policy Cross-pressures and Black Partisanship", Political Behavior

References

  1. ^ "Excerpts From Dr. Claudine Gay's Work - The New York Times". The New York Times. January 3, 2024. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  2. ^ Saul, Stephanie; Patel, Vimal (December 15, 2022). "Harvard Names a New President, an Insider and Historic First". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 22, 2022. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Harvard President Resigns After Mounting Plagiarism Accusations". The New York Times. January 2, 2024. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Harvard names Claudine Gay 30th president". Harvard Gazette. December 15, 2022. Archived from the original on December 22, 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c "Claudine Gay". aaas.fas.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on December 7, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  6. ^ Herszenhorn, Miles J.; Yuan, Claire (July 2, 2023). "Claudine Gay Takes Office, Officially Becoming Harvard's First Black President". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on December 28, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  7. ^ a b Belkin, Douglas; Ellis, Lindsay (October 11, 2023). "Blaming Israel for Hamas Attacks Sparks Backlash Across U.S., Exposing Deep Rifts". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 13, 2023. Retrieved October 13, 2023.
  8. ^ a b Hartocollis, Anemona; Saul, Stephanie; Patel, Vimal (October 10, 2023). "At Harvard, a Battle Over What Should Be Said About the Hamas Attacks". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 13, 2023. Retrieved October 13, 2023.
  9. ^ Hensley, Sarah Beth (December 6, 2023). "Harvard's president answers backlash over response to calls for 'genocide of Jews'". ABC News. Archived from the original on December 7, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  10. ^ "How are Harvard, Penn presidents responding to campus anti-Semitism row?". Al Jazeera. December 6, 2023. Archived from the original on December 7, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  11. ^ Saul, Stephanie; Hartocollis, Anemona (December 6, 2023). "College Presidents Under Fire After Dodging Questions About Antisemitism". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 8, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  12. ^ Korn, Melissa (December 10, 2023). "Penn President, Board Chair Resign After Furor Over Comments on Campus Antisemitism". WSJ. Archived from the original on December 10, 2023. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  13. ^ a b Diver, Tony (December 11, 2023). "Harvard University president Claudine Gay accused of plagiarism amid anti-Semitism row". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  14. ^ a b Schuessler, Jennifer (December 21, 2023). "Harvard Finds More Instances of 'Duplicative Language' in President's Work". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 26, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
  15. ^ a b Egan, Matt (December 29, 2023). "Harvard granted extension to respond to House on plagiarism scandal". CNN. Archived from the original on December 30, 2023. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  16. ^ Walker, Adria R. (January 2, 2024). "Harvard president resigns amid claims of plagiarism and antisemitism backlash". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 2, 2024. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  17. ^ a b "Meet the Haitian-American woman who's Harvard's new Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science". Afropunk. July 25, 2018. Archived from the original on August 20, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
  18. ^ a b c d "Claudine Gay named Harvard FAS dean". Harvard Gazette. July 23, 2018. Archived from the original on December 21, 2022. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  19. ^ Tyler Austin Harper (January 3, 2024). "The Real Harvard Scandal". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  20. ^ a b "Meet Our Trustees | Phillips Exeter Academy". www.exeter.edu. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  21. ^ a b "The Scholar Everyone Sought: Claudine Gay, Harvard's Next President". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on July 2, 2023. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  22. ^ "Who is Claudine Gay, Harvard's president? And how has she made history?". WBAL. December 12, 2023. Archived from the original on December 13, 2023. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  23. ^ "The Stanford Daily Archives". archives.stanforddaily.com. Archived from the original on December 13, 2023. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  24. ^ Reuell, Peter (April 28, 2015). "Claudine Gay named dean of social science". Harvard Gazette. Archived from the original on April 15, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
  25. ^ a b Rosenberg, John (September 2021). "The Art of the Dean". Harvard Magazine. Archived from the original on July 5, 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  26. ^ Streeter, Kurt (January 4, 2024). "For Harvard's First Black President, Race Became the Unavoidable Issue". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  27. ^ Berger, Jonah S.; McCafferty, Molly C. (February 12, 2019). "FAS Dean Claudine Gay Calls Sullivan's Response to Student Concerns 'Insufficient'". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  28. ^ Avi-Yonah, Shera S.; Ryan, Aidan F. (May 11, 2019a). "Winthrop Faculty Deans to Leave After Harvard Refuses to Renew Their Appointments". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2024. Dozens of students met with Khurana, Dean of Students Katherine G. O'Dair, and Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay in Winthrop dining hall Saturday afternoon. Many hugged and thanked the administrators for their decision to not renew Sullivan and Robinson.
  29. ^ Avi-Yonah, Shera S.; Franklin, Delano R. (November 19, 2019b). "Former Winthrop Dean Sullivan Criticizes Admins During Constitutional Law Society Event". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2024. Former Winthrop House Faculty Dean Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr. accused Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay of repeatedly lying about their reasons for dismissing him last semester at an event held Friday.
  30. ^ Soave, Robby (June 10, 2019). "ACLU Says Harvard 'Sacrificed Principles Central to Our Legal System' When It Fired Ron Sullivan". Reason. Archived from the original on February 2, 2023. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  31. ^ Rosenberg, John (January 2021). "The Financial Fallout…So Far". Harvard Magazine. Archived from the original on July 5, 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  32. ^ Nair, Meera S.; Wang, Andy Z. (November 3, 2021). "Defying Projections, FAS Ends Fiscal Year with $51M Surplus". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on December 16, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  33. ^ "Past Vice Presidents". MPSAnet.org. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
  34. ^ Halpert, Madeline (December 15, 2022). "Claudine Gay: Harvard University picks first Black president". BBC News. Archived from the original on November 11, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  35. ^ "Harvard names Claudine Gay as first ever Black president". United Press International. December 16, 2022. Archived from the original on December 23, 2022. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  36. ^ Herszenhorn, Miles J.; Yuan, Claire (July 4, 2023). "With End of Affirmative Action, Claudine Gay Faces Unprecedented Challenges to Start Harvard Presidency". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on December 16, 2023. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
  37. ^ "Homepage". Harvard University President. January 21, 2021. Archived from the original on December 10, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  38. ^ a b "Harvard President Claudine Gay Resigns, Shortest Tenure in University History | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Archived from the original on January 2, 2024. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  39. ^ Mangran, Dan (January 2, 2024). "Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigns amid plagiarism claims". msn.com. CNBC. Archived from the original on January 2, 2024. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  40. ^ a b "Harvard president Claudine Gay's resignation letter in full". The Guardian. January 2, 2024. Archived from the original on January 2, 2024. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  41. ^ Beckett, Lois (January 4, 2024). "Ousted Harvard president Claudine Gay warns of 'a broader war' in op-ed". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  42. ^ Gay, Claudine (January 3, 2024). "Claudine Gay: What Just Happened at Harvard Is Bigger Than Me". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  43. ^ Czachor, Emily Mae (January 2, 2024). "Harvard president Claudine Gay resigns amid controversy - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  44. ^ Haslett, Cheyenne; Hensley, Sarah Beth (December 5, 2023). "Presidents of universities grilled on efforts to counter antisemitism on campus". ABC News. Archived from the original on December 7, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  45. ^ Kim, Juliana; Chappell, Bill; Nadworny, Elissa (December 12, 2023). "Harvard affirms President Claudine Gay will not step down over antisemitism testimony". NPR. Archived from the original on December 12, 2023. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
  46. ^ Wieczner, Jen (December 12, 2023). "How Bill Ackman's Campaign to Oust Harvard's President Failed". Intelligencer. Archived from the original on December 14, 2023. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  47. ^ Herszenhorn, Miles J.; Yuan, Claire. "'I Am Sorry': Harvard President Gay Addresses Backlash Over Congressional Testimony on Antisemitism". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  48. ^ "Harvard president apologizes for remarks on curbing antisemitism as pressure mounts on Penn's president". PBS NewsHour. December 8, 2023. Archived from the original on December 10, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  49. ^ Guilfoil, Kyla (December 6, 2023). "White House condemns university presidents after contentious congressional hearing on antisemitism". NBC News. Archived from the original on December 8, 2023. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
  50. ^ Borter, Gabriella (December 7, 2023). "US House committee opens probe into Harvard, Penn, MIT after antisemitism hearing". Reuters. Archived from the original on December 8, 2023. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
  51. ^ Egan, Matt (December 9, 2023). "UPenn president Liz Magill and Board Chair Scott Bok resign after disastrous hearing on antisemitism | CNN Business". CNN. Archived from the original on December 28, 2023. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
  52. ^ Arkin, Daniel (December 11, 2023). "Hundreds of Harvard faculty members urge university not to oust embattled president". NBC News. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  53. ^ Habeshian, Sareen (December 11, 2023). "Claudine Gay gets show of support from Harvard Alumni Association, faculty". Axios. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  54. ^ a b Natanson, Hannah; Svrluga, Susan (December 12, 2023). "Harvard president to remain after anger over testimony on antisemitism". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 12, 2023. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
  55. ^ Burns, Hilary; Damiano, Mike (December 11, 2023). "Key Harvard oversight board offers silence as controversy engulfs Harvard president Claudine Gay". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on December 12, 2023. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
  56. ^ Sibarium, Aaron (December 11, 2023). "'This is Definitely Plagiarism': Harvard University President Claudine Gay Copied Entire Paragraphs From Others' Academic Work and Claimed Them as Her Own". The Washington Free Beacon. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  57. ^ a b Kettles, Cam E.; Robinson, Tilly R. (December 25, 2023). "A Law Firm Said Plagiarism Allegations Against Harvard President Gay Were 'Demonstrably False.' Then She Submitted Corrections". The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on December 26, 2023. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  58. ^ a b "Statement from the Harvard Corporation: Our President". Harvard University. December 12, 2023. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  59. ^ Robinson, Tilly R.; Shah, Neil H. (December 21, 2023). "Harvard President Claudine Gay to Submit 3 Additional Corrections, Corporation Says Improper Citations Fall Short of Research Misconduct". www.thecrimson.com. Archived from the original on December 25, 2023. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  60. ^ Schuessler, Jennifer (December 21, 2023). "Harvard Finds More Instances of 'Duplicative Language' in President's Work". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 26, 2023. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  61. ^ Souza, Sabrina; Egan, Matt (December 15, 2023). "Harvard President Claudine Gay corrects two scholarly articles following allegations of plagiarism". CNN. Archived from the original on December 16, 2023. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
  62. ^ Hartocollis, Anemona (January 2, 2024). "What to know about the latest plagiarism accusations against Claudine Gay". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  63. ^ Matza, Max (December 21, 2023). "Claudine Gay: New problems found in Harvard president's work". BBC News. Archived from the original on December 24, 2023. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  64. ^ Vaidyanathan, Vaishnavi (October 12, 2023). "Who Is Christopher Afendulis, Harvard President Claudine Gay's Husband?". TimesNow. Archived from the original on December 12, 2023. Retrieved December 12, 2023.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Claudine_Gay&oldid=1194233022"